The invention relates to a radial shaft sealing ring consisting of a casing and a flexible sealing ring disposed therein, from whose bearing surface fibers project.
For many different reasons, measures must be taken to seal the passage of shafts through bores in housings. In accordance with the many different applications, a correspondingly great number of types of construction have been developed, each suitable for a more or less broad range of applications.
Radial shaft sealing rings consist ordinarily of a stiff component of metal and an elastomeric part directly joined thereto. The elastomeric part has an especially shaped sealing lip which wipingly and hence sealingly engages the periphery of the shaft that is to be sealed.
Recently a construction has become known through German "Auslegeschrift" No. 2,339,353, in which the elastomeric part has been replaced by a structure contacting the shaft axially and having fiber ends projecting from the surface thereof facing the shaft. Seals of this kind have proven to be very resistant to mechanical damage, and they have shown good characteristics with regard to their sealing function. On account of the expensive process used in making them, however, these seals have not yet achieved any appreciable popularity.
The process of making these seals is essentially concerned with the problem of anchoring the fiber sealing element in the mounting. For the achievement of a sufficiently tight and mechanically strong attachment, the use of metal clamping rings has been unavoidable in many cases.
The direct molding of a fiber-containing elastomer onto a simple metal ring by a method similar to the method of manufacturing lip-type sealing rings is possible under certain conditions. In such a procedure, however, all that is accomplished by the embedded fibers is a reduction of wear, and the sealing action does not match that of the one specified in German "Auslegeschrift" No. 2,339,353.